got word today that Edmund Bacon (urban planning legend, past director of the philadelphia planning comission, and yes, father of actor Kevin Bacon) passed away late last week. he was also the designer of the infamous skateboard destination known as LOVE park in center city philadelphia (where i used to eat lunch everyday when i worked downtown). alas, love park is no more ... but i hear you can still skate it in tony hawks video game or something. anyway, i was lucky enough to sit and have a cup of coffee with eb once when i was in grad. school at penn. he had come over to campus to give a lecture in one of my first year classes (history of planning or something like that). man he was on fire that day. that was 4 years ago, so that would've put him at the ripe old age of 91. anyway, three or four of us went with him to a coffee shop after that lecture and spent a couple hours chatting about all kinds of things. he asked me what it was i was focusing on in graduate school, and what i wanted to do with that knowledge upon leaving. welp, you know, its kind of intimidating when someone of that stature calls you out like that ... but i gave it my best shot and launched into my schpeel about our history of misguided urban transportation policy, oil dependance, environmental degradation, and how it all ties together in my mind and offered up what i consider to be some possible solutions ... at the time i didn't know he was one of the earliest proponents of the concept of post petroleum cities. after listening to me for a few minutes he looked at me and said. "you've got some good ideas. i'm glad that your doing what your doing. we need more young people thinking about these things." now, i'm gonna cheese out here for a minute, but man, that made my year.
about a year later i was walking downtown with my boss in philly, who was the director of transportation projects in the strategic planning department of philly. well, we were walking along chatting about transit policy or some shit and here comes ed bacon down the sidewalk towards us. my boss was super good about introducing me to all of the players around there (remember kiddies, its not what you know its who you know ...) and always took an opportunity to do so. anyway, he was about to introduce me to ed (as he didn't know i had already made his acquaintence) and just after he said "Ed, I want you to meet David A. ....." eb cut him off and said. "I met David awhile back. He can tell you a thing or two about our transportation problems, he's a smart kid. You should try to keep him from leaving Philadelphia like all the others". i was floored. well they did (try to keep me out there) but i just couldn't do it. this gig in the fort was waiting for me, along with the mountains. but sometimes i wonder what it would've been like to stay there and tackle some of those bigger issues. i dunno, it seems pretty daunting. i think there are others that choose to stay (who are smarter and more motivated than me) working on implementing the ideas that ed bacon championed not just for philadelphia, but for all cities that were/are in decline.
so, hats off to you ed bacon. may your vision for philadelphia and other great american cities come to fruition ....
7 comments:
I'm glad your where your at and doing what your doing dude.
if you were out there,
we wouldn't get to see you ever...
thanks, both of you.
its not really a question of being happy or unhappy. just thinking about the different scenarios panning out is all. obviously we make decisions everyday about things ... but those big ones tend to change the course of events significantly.
like what if i never left lincoln? or austin? or philly?
i have no regrets, yet. just an active imagination.
carless cities. i thought i was the only one to dream up stuff like that.
take a look at havana, cuba. they're pretty much on their way with the loss of petrol. the entire right lane of the highway is now bikes only.
but what would one look like which was designed to be carless from the get go? a lot of fins and high tech looking bubbles, i reckon.
a few years ago, after reading "Bike Cult" I was in the thrall of imagining carless cities and life in America. In some ways its the best utopian fantasy I can imagine. It would make a great work of speculative fiction--and in some ways I think it will happen some day. In our lifetime though?
... I'm banking on it. I almost want to put a moratorium on building bike paths or expanding existing roads. my (not very well thought out) theory plays right into what josephrey mentions in cuba. eventually, if petrol runs out or gets too hign in price, it could come to pass that there is less demand on "private automobile infrastructure" - ie. roads. if that happens, we can simply restripe/reconfigure the existing concrete into expansive bike lanes.
yessssssss.
that would be sooo sweet . . . . true utopia
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